General Dynamics Wins $562 Million SOCOM Truck Deal

General Dynamics Corp. won a contract potentially valued at $562 million to supply U.S. Special Operations Command with new four-by-four trucks.

The Defense Department on Thursday announced the award for the so-called Ground Mobility Vehicle, or GMV, program. The notice didn’t say how many trucks the command plans to buy, though the number was previously estimated at about 1,300. The funding also covers spare parts, training and an electronic communications suite.

The Falls Church, Va.-based tank-maker beat out companies such as Humvee-maker AM General LLC, based in Sound Bend, Ind., and truck-maker Navistar International Corp., based in Lisle, Ill. for the seven-year deal. Much of the work will be performed in Ladson, S.C., where General Dynamics’ Force Protection unit is located.

“This is an important contract,” Rob Doolittle, a company spokesman, said in a telephone interview. “The SOCOM community is an important customer for us and this expands our relationship with them.”

The vehicle must carry as many as seven passengers, weigh less than 7,000 pounds unloaded and be transportable in a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. The truck must also be able to fire its weapon in less than a minute upon driving off the twin-rotor aircraft.

General Dynamics may also benefit from international sales of the vehicle, or a similar version of it, especially in the Middle East. Countries such as Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have expressed interest in upgrading their fleets of armored trucks.

SOCOM now uses a version of the iconic Humvee, which entered Army service in 1985 and whose vulnerability to roadside blasts was exposed during the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. military vehicle programs face an uncertain future since the March 1 start of automatic budget cuts known as sequestration and last year’s strategic shift by the Pentagon away from the ground wars of the past decade and toward threats in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Anyways, can we just push the GMV to the fleet as a Humvee replacement? Lighter vehicles for combat, heavier vehicles for counterinsurgency/occupation/FEMA suppression duty. And Chinook transportation isn’t anything to sneeze at. And if it has better fuel economy to increase the range (vital for special operations) that also has practical applications for conventional units.

The thing to remember though is that Special Ops units don’t have the persistent presence that conventional forces do. They want to get in with as much firepower they can carry and get out. Early in Iraq, some SF units stripped down the then slightly armored humvee and set up a machine gun in the place of every door.

(1) This is another Pentagon acquisition fiasco. From the looks it, just some flat metal and roll bars with an engine and off road wheels, this dune buggy shouldn’t cost any more than $50,000, even at inflated prices. I want to hear from all those garage shops out there who know they can build this at a reasonable price.

(2) SOCOM needing a separate vehicle because the V-22 design doesn’t carry a HMWWV internally just compounds stupid decisions made ten years ago.

(3) We borrowed Chinese money to build 13,000 MRAPS two-thirds of which will now be scrapped.…give SOCOM the MRAPS. Don’t need to worry about getting in and out when you can just forcefully push yourself around.

(4) War is about killing. And you need to get OUT of your damn vehicle to go hunt down and kill insurgents. Whether you have a big MRAP or a small GMV, the insurgents just laugh at us because we’re too damn scared to go one-on-one against them. This is why we lost Iraq and Afghanistan.

The third paragraph from the end just blows my mind… “General Dynamics may also benefit from international sales of the vehicle, or a similar version of it, especially in the Middle East. Countries such as Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have expressed interest in upgrading their fleets of armored trucks” That makes great sense doesn’t it? Provide SOCOM level vehicles to “allies” that are MINIMALLY suspect… that’s a great idea. A lot like providing stinger missiles to the Mujahideen in the 80’s.

The Federal Government can make a paper-clip cost $50,000 unfortunately. Nor do I believe this has anything to do with a V-22 related requirement.

Compare the image there to a typical MRAP. They are two different vehicles. You wouldn’t use an MRAP on rough hills or operations behind enemy lines. The guys using this thing do get out of the vehicle, yet that vehicle provides rapid transportation, can carry extra supplies and ammo, can mount heavy weapons like the .50 cal MG or 40mm AGL which are otherwise not very mobile, etc.

Taxpayer u truly are a moron 4x4 vehicles allow us to get around IEDs place in the road and speaking from someone that has done Spec-ops, Stealth is a your best friend! Not having to call in EOD to save you while being stuck in the middle of the road for hours even a day, Alerts your presence there. and trust me they aren’t laughing when they see a tank or a AC Cobra following them around shooting at them. We won that war dummy.

Taxpayer said » “From the looks it, just some flat metal and roll bars with an engine and off road wheels, this dune buggy shouldn’t cost any more than $50,000, even at inflated prices. I want to hear from all those garage shops out there who know they can build this at a reasonable price. ”

As someone who has designed, prototyped and overseen production of various components, from structural components, to armor to fuel systems, on various military land vehicle and vessel projects, I can tell you that a “garage shop” is not capable of producing these components. Not just that, but you have no idea the material costs and associated labor costs! You see a “steel” frame and rollcage and “steel” body panels, while any one “in the know” sees high-strength 4130 chromoly tubing (twice the price and twice time to fabricate) and Mil-A-46100 light-weight armor-grade steel (four times the price and twice the time to fabricate). Not only is this my job, but I have friends overseas who bet their lives on the function and reliability of these vehicles every day. Let’s not let them down.

I think the DOD is a jobs program of massive scale. We waste more money on dumb money wasting projects for DOD than we can count in a week of audits. These vehicles are not worth the money and no way would a private contractor spend money like that. Only when government money is spent does everything purchased cost double.

The cost has very little to do with the vehicle itself. Add up the cost of a hundred lobbyists full time, paying campaign donations, money on the side deals, lawyers, paper pushers, project management and last but not least fancy gadgets like a computer that cost an average yearly salary for one of us. No, this isn’t about a 4x4 vehicle. This is about American’s being asleep at the helm and anybody who has an opportunity to pick our pockets not hesitating to jump at the chance.

At $4 million plus a copy, even with spare parts, this is a rip off of tax payer money. They could buy Bradleys for less. What type of technology sophisticated 4 wheel drive rough terrain vehicle needs that kind of price tag?

Unfortunately this thing won’t be able to get out of it’s own way when fully armored and full 13,000lb GVW. Sad to see they are replacing one overweighted vehicle with another. Political award at best. Sad for SF.

Doesn’t matter if your 4x4 vehicle is used to escort convoys that are road-bound. It’s unlikely this GMV will ever be used to escort road-bound convoys, but let’s not forget that “off-road” means different things to different people. There’s off-road, and then there’s the stuff that requires stupendous ground-clearance, skid-plates, independent suspension…

Tell me, have you actually been in the Army, Marines, Airforce or Navy? Or could you just be another arm chair warrior? When you have been there and done that, then come back and tell us about who is, “Too damn scared to go one-on-one”!!!

Kinda agree with you there.…definitely stay out of everyone else’s problems. But Detroit, well, that is a Democrat controlled area since the 1960s.…the US military would go broke trying to fix that screw up.….…but hey, we need to start somewhere right?

Yeah, the best the Demoncraps could do was screw up Detroit…It took the Repubtard-thugs to screw up the rest of America…And the brain-washed sheeple let it happen…
America needs a NEW Declaration of NEW Independence, RENEW the Constitution, Re-affirm the Bill of Rights, and the Rule of Law, greatly simplify the tax code, AUDIT the FED, rein in the Pentagon-Military-Industrial Complex Merry-go-round, and *THEN* we can either have another REVOLUTION, or go for a nice, smooth, MILITARY COUP, and show the rest of the World how the American Worker & Citizen can still GET the JOB DONE… We’re gonna need a lot of *TRUCKS*, Made in U.S.A.…and lots of SpecOps Troops…

While Hummer, the newer up-armored truck are fine for some purposes. This vehicle is a step up from some of the “dune buggies” used to try the concept. Special Operations groups, and patrol group can make use of this basic, compact vehicle as long as it is tough, reliable, and ease of field maintenance.

If this is like many contracts, that’s the total lifecycle. It’s for the initial cost, as well as parts expected for the vehicles anticipated life, preparation of the maintenance manuals, training of the first batch of maintenance personnel, etc.

As an example, compare it to your car’s “Total Cost of Ownership” (less fuel, tires, and fluids), with NO resale component. You’ll find that your $30,000 family sedan costs a heckuva lot more than $30k over it’s lifetime. Oh, and your $30k sedan came off a production line along with another 50,000 to 400,000 brothers and sisters. Economies of scale. You may want to look at the costs of civilian vehicles with comparable low production #s.

and no secret squirrel components.

I believe that the costs could be somewhat lower, but the simple fact is, you cannot develop and build a military grade tactical vehicle for the same cost as you can build a superficially similar civilian vehicle.

No, we just get Daimler-Chrysler to build a new factory CONUS, and ramp up production of the Jeep Rubicon…Draw up a Mil-Spec version, with beefed-up suspension components, and a slightly wider track for more stability under the up-armor package…Think: “Rat Patrol, 2020″…
…remember that old TV show from the 1960’s…???…If DC, (“Daimler-Chrysler”) knew they would get paid for 50– 100,000 units, it would be a win-win-win deal…domestic jobs, etc…